Raincreek Pottery & Poultry

The following are construction pictures of our take on a hoop style coop or chicken tractor using 16 foot long, galvanized steel, livestock panels to form the hoop. Our design is very rigid and sturdy yet light enough for one person to drag around the pasture. The 16 foot by 12 foot tarps used for covering are a very light weight, durable, inexpensive and easily replaced roofing material. The tractors we made are 6 feet tall, 8 feet wide and two livestock pannels long (approximately 9 feet). We hope these pictures inspire you or help in your coop building endeavors.

The roosts can just be cut to length and set on top of the livestock pannel wires with a small piece of plywood screwed to the ends to act like a hook.

We use 18 gallon plastic totes as nest boxes. Eventually we will get around to mounting the nest boxes on the front of all the hoop houses, as shown in the picture at the top of the page, but until then we just have to take them out and put them back in whenever we move the pens. Eight Welsummer hens share this one nestbox. Notice the white plastic bucket hanging in the far right of the picture below. That bucket has nipple waterers mounted into the bottom. We are converting all our pens over to this system because they require much less cleaning than any other type of waterer that we have tried.